"Another gun rights group, the Gun Owners of America, is adamantly
opposed to the [McCarthy-Dingell] legislation. It said the measure
would allow the government to trample privacy rights by compiling
reams of personal information and potentially bar mentally stable
people from buying guns." -- Associated Press, April 24, 2007

Thursday, April 26, 2007

This is going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight. GOA continues to
stand alone in the trenches, defending the rights of gun owners
around the country. It's not going to be easy.

Gun control supporters want to pass gun control within the next
couple of weeks. And that's why, even if you took action earlier
this week, you need to do so once again.

All the gun haters (who have been keeping silent for a while) are now
coming out of the closet and into the open. Take the notoriously
anti-gun senator from New York -- Chuck Schumer. He has been very,
very excited this week. Recent events have given him a platform, and
the excuse, to push legislation that he had sponsored years ago --
legislation that never got through Congress.

You see, Senator Chuck Schumer has been, in past years, the Senate
sponsor of the McCarthy bill (HR 297). And the recent murders at
Virginia Tech have given Senator Schumer the pretext he has been
looking for. Appearing on the Bill O'Reilly show earlier this week,
Schumer did his best to make a reasonable-sounding pitch for more gun
control.

He told O'Reilly on Monday that while he and Rep. McCarthy had
previously worked together on this legislation, he now wants Congress
to take up HR 297 quickly. "The Brady Law is a reasonable
limitation," Schumer said. "Some might disagree with me, but I think
certain kinds of licensing and registration is a reasonable
limitation. We do it for cars."

Get the picture? First, he wants the Brady Law strengthened with the
McCarthy-Dingell-Schumer legislation. Then it's off to pass more gun
control -- treating guns like cars, where all gun owners are licensed
and where bureaucrats will have a wonderful confiscation list.

In the O'Reilly interview, Schumer showed his hand when he revealed
the strategy for this bill. Because it could become such a hot
potato -- thanks to your efforts -- Senator Schumer is pushing to get
this bill passed by Unanimous Consent in the Senate, which basically
means that the bill would get passed WITHOUT A VOTE.

This is a perfect way to pass gun control without anyone getting
blamed... or so they think. We need to tell every Senator that if
this bill passes without a vote, then we hold ALL OF THEM
responsible. (Be looking for a future GOA alert aimed at your
Senators.)

On the House side, the Associated Press reported this past Monday
that "House Democratic leaders are working with the National Rifle
Association to bolster existing laws blocking" certain prohibited
persons from buying guns. Of course, there are at least three
problems with this approach:

1. It's morally and constitutionally wrong to require law-abiding
citizens to first prove their innocence to the government before they
can exercise their rights -- whether it's Second Amendment rights,
First Amendment rights, or any other right. Doing that gives
bureaucrats the opportunity to abuse their power and illegitimately
prevent honest gun owners from buying guns.

2. Bureaucrats have already used the Brady Law to illegitimately deny
the Second Amendment rights of innocent Americans. Americans have
been prevented from buying guns because of outstanding traffic
tickets, because of errors, because the NICS computer system has
crashed -- and don't forget returning veterans because of
combat-related stress. You give an anti-gun bureaucrat an inch,
he'll take a mile -- which we have already seen as GOA has documented
numerous instances of the abuses mentioned above.

3. Finally, all the background checks in the world will NOT stop bad
guys from getting firearms. As we mentioned in the previous alert,
severe restrictions in Washington, DC, England, Canada, Germany and
other places have not stopped evil people from using guns to commit
murder. (Correction: In our previous alert, we incorrectly
identified Ireland as the location of the infamous schoolyard
massacre. In fact, it took place in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996 -- a
country which at the time had even more stringent laws than we have
here.)

McCARTHY BILL TREATING GUN OWNERS WORSE THAN TERRORISTS

HR 297 would require the states to turn over mountains of personal
data (on people like you) to the FBI -- any information which
according to the Attorney General, in his or her unilateral
discretion, would be useful in ascertaining who is or is not a
"prohibited person."

Liberal support for this bill points out an interesting hypocrisy in
their loyalties: For six years, congressional Democrats have
complained about the Bush administration's efforts to obtain personal
information on suspected terrorists WITHOUT A COURT ORDER.

And yet, this bill would allow the FBI to obtain massive amounts of
information -- information which dwarfs any records obtained from
warrantless searches (or wiretaps) that have been conducted by the
Bush Administration on known or suspected terrorists operating in the
country.

In fact, HR 297 would allow the FBI to get this information on honest
Americans (like you) even though the required data is much more
private and personal than any information obtained thus far by the
Bush administration on terrorists.

And all of these personal records would be obtained by the FBI with
no warrant or judicial or Congressional oversight whatsoever!!!

Get the picture? Spying on terrorists is bad... but spying on honest
gun owners is good. After all, this horrific intrusion on the
private lives of all Americans is presumed to be "okay" because it's
only being used to bash guns, not to go after terrorists and
criminals who are trying to kill us.

As indicated in earlier alerts, this information could include your
medical, psychological, financial, education, employment, traffic,
state tax records and more. We don't even know the full extent of
what could be included because HR 297 -- which can be viewed athttp://thomas.loc.gov by typing in the bill number -- is so
open-ended. It requires states to provide the NICS system with ALL
RECORDS that the Attorney General believes will help the FBI
determine who is and who is not a prohibited person. Certainly, an
anti-gun AG like Janet Reno would want as many types of records in
the system as possible.

The provision that would probably lead to the greatest number of
'fishing expeditions' is that related to illegal aliens. Federal law
prohibits illegal aliens from owning guns. The bill requires all
"relevant" data related to who is in this country illegally. But
what records pertaining to illegal aliens from the states would be
relevant? Perhaps a better question would be, what records are not
relevant?

ACTION:

1. Please take a moment to communicate your opposition to HR 297 --
even if you already sent your Representative a note earlier this
week. We have provided a new letter (below) which provides updated
information relating to the battle we are fighting.

House leaders are talking about bringing up this bill soon. And Sen.
Schumer (in his interview with O'Reilly) even hinted at the fact that
the bill could come up WITHOUT the ability to offer pro-gun
amendments -- such as a repeal of the DC gun ban or reciprocity for
concealed carry holders -- provisions that could potentially serve as
killer amendments.

Also -- oh yeah, this is going to upset you -- Senator Schumer told
O'Reilly, "I got to tell you, a lot of NRA people, they support
this." Can you believe that? Senator Schumer is claiming to speak
for you! That's why it's so important that you once again tell your
congressman that Schumer is wrong... that you're a supporter of gun
rights who OPPOSES the anti-gun McCarthy-Dingell bill.

2. Please circulate this e-mail and forward it to as many gun owners
as you can.

As a supporter of Second Amendment rights, I do NOT support HR 297,
the NICS Improvement Act. I hope that you will OPPOSE this bill and
urge your party leadership to either kill it outright or to allow
other pro-gun amendments to be offered (repeal of the DC gun ban,
reciprocity for concealed carry holders, etc.).

In its current form, HR 297 will treat gun owners even worse than
terrorists, giving the FBI a mountain of private information on
law-abiding Americans like me.

How is it that, despite all the criticism over the Bush
administration's attempts to obtain personal information on suspected
terrorists without a court order, this bill would allow the FBI to
obtain massive amounts of information on ME -- information which
dwarfs any warrantless searches (or wiretaps) that have been
conducted by the Bush Administration on known or suspected terrorists
operating in the country.

And all of this personal information would be obtained by the FBI
with no warrant or judicial or Congressional oversight whatsoever!!!

How is it that spying on terrorists is bad, but spying on honest gun
owners is good?

Again, I hope that you will oppose HR 297. Gun Owners of America
will continue to keep me informed on the progress of this bill.
Thank you.